Contractbound

They arrived at the office at the end of the dark corridor and entered after being given permission from the man inside. Mastro Gianni was sitting leisurely in his office while reading a book. After seeing his guests, he put down his book and greeted them with a smile. Graham took a seat and relaxed, which was followed by Luuk who felt rather awkward. He was the youngest in the room.

Graham smiled back at the friendly man who was much older than him and was emitting a dangerous aura the whole time. He took out an object covered in cloth from his coat and handed it over to the man, without the cloth. He was cautious.

"You"re a stingy one, aren"t you?" Mastro Gianni shot a joke at Graham.

"You would be the first person to say that," Graham answered casually while stuffing the cloth with Valentine"s blood inside his coat.

The old man took the cube-shaped artifact and observed it closely. He was checking the artifact for its authenticity. After a while, he smiled and called Beppe who was standing by the door over. Mastro Gianni handed the artifact to him without saying anything. Beppe, who seemed to have understood what he needed to do, left the room with the cube.

"So, what was that thing?" asked Graham curiously as Beppe closed the door from outside.

"That"s a dead person"s remain, that"s what-- a dangerous one at that," he answered seriously. From his tone, he didn"t seem to be lying.

"That artifact should have a name, right? Can you tell me at least that?" Graham asked. He needed the name for divination purposes.

"It"s called the Eye of Amada." Mastro Gianni answered shortly. His eyes were observing Graham.

Graham didn"t ask about the detail because he knew he wouldn"t get any definite answer. "How come it came to the possession of Zeger de Witt?" he asked instead.

"We don"t know the reason, but we do know that it will be too dangerous to let it stay in his hand. That man is wicked," answered Mastro Gianni only as needed.

Graham was a.n.a.lyzing the man"s stance from his answers. It was clear that they both hadn"t trusted each other yet so they didn"t fully show their cards. Luuk was only watching from the side. He was feeling like a student in a parent-teacher meeting.

"So, what about the commission money?" Graham asked straightforwardly.

"Wow, you"re so direct, young man." Mastro Gianni smiled again, "Aren"t you enjoying our little chat?"

"What chat? It was only me asking questions and you answering vaguely." Graham shrugged.

"Alright, alright, you got me. In this time and age, you cannot trust anyone you just met fully, especially for someone as old as me," he said nonchalantly.

Mastro Gianni unlocked his desk drawer and took out a big brown envelope from it. He slid it across the desk and it landed on Graham"s hand.

"Your money is here, and since you and our young thief here completed the mission satisfactorily, I"ve put it a little bonus there," he said while shooting a smile at Luuk.

Graham picked up the envelope and gave it to Luuk. Since Luuk was the one who received the mission, he should be the one in charge of the money. Luuk opened the envelope and checked the money inside. There were seventy guilders in there, so the total of their commission fee was a hundred and twenty guilders.

"Then if there is nothing else, we"ll take our leave," said Graham while getting up from his seat.

"Good evening," said Luuk while following Graham walking out of the room.

"I"m looking forward to our next cooperation," said Mastro Gianni loud enough so the two men who were exiting the room could hear him. "Hmm... a Thief and a Fire Divinator. What an interesting combo," he muttered once his guests were gone.

Graham and Luuk walked back down the dim-lit corridor towards the exit of the secret base. Near the exit, a man came out of a room and after he saw the two men walking, he spoke.

"Hey, Luuk! How was the mission?" he asked with familiarity. He saw Graham by Luuk"s side and smiled.

"It went well. We just turned it in." Luuk answered with a friendly tone.

"Great! Anyway, sorry I can"t stay and chat. I need to be somewhere else. See ya!" he said and went away as quickly as he arrived.

"Was that the someone who introduced you to this organization?" Graham asked for confirmation.

"Yes. That"s Pietro, my campus mate." Luuk answered, his tone had a hint of self-pity in it.

"Your campus mate is a mafia member? Interesting." Graham said nonchalantly.

The two men exited the restaurant and walked home in the moonless night. It was already pretty late, so Oosteindestraat had become busy, but the dangerous-looking people who usually lurked in the street seemed to have known them and didn"t even take a glance at them. It was probably the order from the Mastro not to cause trouble for them.

"So, do you feel anything different after stealing the artifact? How do you know if you"ve pleased your Deity?" Graham asked Luuk inquisitively.

"I genuinely can"t feel any difference." Luuk said honestly, "Maybe the messenger will come to deliver a letter through my pleasant dream again," he then said sarcastically.

Graham and Luuk walked towards Oosteindestraat South, where Jacco usually hung out. They wanted to give him and his men their share while they were still in the area. Although Graham was pacing, he was still left behind by Luuk who walked as though his feet didn"t touch the ground. It was definitely not a normal person"s speed.

In the quieter street of Oosteindestraat South, there were dangerous-looking men hanging around, and a muscular man sitting at the top of a ledge, overlooking everything. It was Jacco van Wert, their leader. The men saw Graham and Luuk approaching and didn"t bother them. Jacco got down from his high seat and nodded at his guests.

"So you kept your promise," he said smilingly.

"I"m a detective, not a liar," Graham said casually while shrugging.

He gestured at Luuk who then took out a smaller envelope. He had previously split the money into two, Jacco"s and his men"s share and his and Graham"s. He had put thirty guilders in the envelope and how Jacco split it with his men is none of his business. Luuk was being generous because without Jacco and his men, the mission wouldn"t have been successful. Zeger de Witt wouldn"t have been too angry to notice him approaching and would have definitely attacked him before he could do anything.

Jacco took the envelope and saw the money inside. His green eyes lit up with excitement and started counting the money.

"Wow! Is this f.u.c.king real?! So you were not lying when you said the money was good." he said amusedly while holding the money in his hands.

Thirty guilders was a lot of money in the Republic. It was equal to 9600 pennings and could buy someone a lot of things.

Once his excitement had died down, Jacco put the money back in the envelope and stuffed it inside his pocket. He would split the money with his men once his two guests were gone. He turned to look at Graham and asked,

"How did you know there would be a d.a.m.ned earthquake?"

Graham explained with honesty, "I didn"t. I only knew there would be a big thing that would help us escape."

"Are you a f.u.c.king prophet?" Jacco asked in disbelief.

Graham didn"t know how to respond, so he just smiled and shrugged.

"How are your men? Are they all safe?" Luuk asked.

"Yeah yeah, they are all safe and sound. Thanks to the warning, we got out of there before the s.h.i.t hit the fan. It was f.u.c.king chaotic back there. The earthquake wasn"t even that big but people were running around like headless chickens."

They went quiet for a while. Earthquakes happened very rarely in the Republic of Tulp, so when there was one, people would most likely panic. Especially if the earthquake was big like what had happened earlier, although it only lasted for a couple of seconds.

"Anyway, how did you become a War Marcher?" asked Graham curiously.

"A what??" Jacco said confusedly. He turned to Luuk but the latter also didn"t seem to know.

"Contractbounds of your Deity. They are called War Marchers." Graham explained.

Suddenly Jacco"s expression showed like everything just made sense, "Ah!"

He then went quiet. After some time, he answered, "We"re not friends or anything, so I don"t have to tell you."

His expression was that of nostalgia and sadness. It seemed to be a sensitive topic for him.

Since there was nothing else they needed to do there, they decided to go home.

"You guys aren"t so bad. Hit me up again if you need help!" said Jacco loudly as the two men were walking away.

Luuk was walking fast ahead of Graham. They were two grown men so he didn"t need to wait for his partner. Luuk arrived home much sooner than Graham. Graham opened his apartment door and hanged his coat on the hanger without taking out anything. He went straight to the shower and once he was done, he lied down in the bed.

He was going to review what he had experienced. It was one way for him to keep track of his life and not lose the sense of self. It also helped him decide the next course of action.

"Let"s start from this morning, Val. I did a lot of divination to make sure the mission would be successful, and now I know divination can be a very powerful tool if used correctly. It showed us the street our target would take, and the exact time he would arrive there. It also showed us our way of escaping, including the time something big would happen. The empty house that we found was also thanks to divination."

He paused and then continued speaking in a low and calm voice, "Although the image shown was blurry and sometimes vague, if we interpret it right it can be scarily accurate. And I can always do paper burning divination to double-check. But because of all the different questions I have to ask and all the double-checking, I"ve used up all my attempts for today."

"My divination worked well probably because I had all that information about the target and the mission. It was just like when I tried to use divination to see the bizarre picture but failed, but when I divined the name Pravitatem, it worked."

He paused again and went into thinking. He was sorting out his jumbled thoughts while listening to the silence of the night. Only the sound of the clock ticking was present. "Tomorrow, I have to divine what the Eye of Amada is. Since we now know the name, the divination should work."

"Now about Luuk"s power. So he could also steal air from a tire. I wonder what else he can steal. We should definitely ask him to go and experiment with us. It"s too bad that he is a busy medical student. If only he was a literature student."

"Jacco"s War Marcher power wasn"t so bad either. He works best with a group of people instead of alone. No wonder he naturally seeks out people to form a gang," he remembered the information given about each Contractbound and their characteristics.

"That Zeger de Witt"s power is dangerous. I didn"t hear what he was saying, but in such a short time he made three people fight against each other. We are lucky he"s a government official and can"t use flashy power in public, otherwise, he would have used his shapeshifting power to chase us. I wonder what he can turn into. The intel didn"t tell us anything about that."

He stopped speaking and closed his eyes. The ticking sound of the clock was a pleasant white noise in the dark room. He fell asleep not long after.